I've got a pile of stuff on my desk that I've meant to blog
at one point or another, so tonight's entry?

Hodgepodge!

*

Homeschool: My wife and I homeschool our young son, and if
my oldest comes to live with us at some point, we plan to homeschool him as
well. This is a touchy topic for a lot of people on both sides of the issue,
but I recently came across an article that addresses a large part of why we
decided to take ourselves out of the public education system. I’ve had a few people ask me about it over the
last few days, so in case you're curious, here you go.

*

Games: The good people of 17 Bit Studios have cooked up a new trailer for their upcoming title, Skulls of the Shogun. I've talked about this game plenty of times so
I don't want to beat a dead horse (you're all buying it, right?) But in case
you've somehow missed me mentioning it, check out the video and keep your eyes
peeled... Last I heard, it's coming in October.

*

After playing Hitman: Absolution at PAX, I felt a lot more
confident about it and decided to put $5 down at Gamestop in order to play the
Sniper Challenge demo level.

Basically, it's a micro-level available for download right
now. Agent 47 is perched on a rooftop opposite from a party taking place on top
of a neighboring building. The object is to take out one particular guy, but
there's also a score-based element where shooting certain things increases a
points multiplier, and in addition to that, it's more than just shooting. With
careful aim, it's possible to take out the enemies in true Hitman fashion without
alerting anyone that something is up.

It only takes a few minutes to complete but there are loads
of little touches and small little secrets to find, and the drive to beat your
friends ranked higher than you on the leaderboard is pretty strong. If you're
planning to buy the game anyway, it's totally worth putting a couple bucks down
for this and playing it now.

*

I haven't tried it yet, but apparently the soundtrack to
Double Dragon Neon is pretty sweet. It's available here to download for free,
or you can do the cool thing and donate a couple of bucks to the composer if
you wish.

*

The third Indie Uprising is taking place on XBLI right now,
and a good chunk of titles are already out. In case you're not familiar, you
can click here to read up on what the Uprising is all about in greater detail,
but basically it's a way to showcase the best of what XBLI can offer.

I didn't have time to play through all of them, but here are
some quick thoughts on the ones that I did check out:

Qrth-Phyl

>Qrth-Phyl:It's a ridiculous name, but it was by far my
favorite of the group. Basically, it's Snake + Tron, but has an added twist of
going back and forth between 2D and 3D. A level starts out with a snake eating
dots on a flat plane that can be flipped, but after enough have been eaten, a
hole opens up in the plane and the snake can enter free-flying 3D space. The
presentation is super-slick and it controls smoothly. Bought this one on the
spot.

Setentia

>Setentia: This one shouldn't have been included in the
promotion. The graphics are ugly, it's clunky to control, the basic concept of
play is a non-starter and it's got a wordy ‘art’ vibe to it that makes the
whole thing a little bit ridiculous since it's such a poor game. I could go on
in greater detail, but there's no point. Just avoid this one.

Diehard Dungeon

>Diehard Dungeon: Sort of a real-time quasi-Roguelike, I
bought this one after the first couple of minutes, but then started to regret
my purchase. The old-school graphics are great and I like the idea of combining
random dungeons with fast action. On the other hand, I wasn't hitting power ups
fast enough to keep things fresh and the rooms feel too similar -- basically,
break a bunch of boxes until you find a key while dodging or killing creatures.
Open the door, move on to the next room, repeat. The thing that really killed
it for me was that the boxes that hold items take too many hits to break, and
it just started to annoy me after a while. With a little work this one could be
pretty awesome, and apparently it's getting patched soon. I’ll revisit in a
while and see how it's been tweaked.

Gateways!

>Gateways!: The easiest way to describe this one is that
it's a 2D Metroidvania-ish title where the main mechanic is a Portal gun. I
have to admit that style counts for a lot with me, and I didn't care for the
graphics in this one at all. Also, I've already played Portal twice (three
times, if you count the section in Darksiders) and it's not really novel
anymore. I appreciate that the developer was able to implement it in this way,
but at the same time, it felt a little too cumbersome and not fresh enough to
keep my attention. I didn't get very far, but based on what I saw, I didn't
want to keep going.

*

So, the Wii U announced a release date, launch titles, tech
specs, and all that stuff. You can click here if you want to read up on it
yourself, but I'm not going to go into details.

Long story short, I wasn't very keen on it up until this
point, and after the announcement, I still wasn't. However, the one bright spot
to come out of this (no, I don't really care about Bayonetta) is that Capcom
FINALLY announced a new Monster Hunter as a Wii U exclusive.

MH: 3 Ultimate will be coming in March, apparently… so I
will be getting a Wii U in March. It was
the only name that could have possibly been announced that would have convinced
me to make plans to buy the hardware, and there it is.

On the other hand, I have to admit that I'm slightly
disappointed. MH3 (Tri in the US) is a good game for sure, but it's not my
favorite and I'm still quite frustrated that Capcom hasn’t made any moves to
bring MH: Portable 3rd to the states. That's the one that I was really hoping
would get here sooner rather than later, especially since there’s an HD version
that can be played on the PS3 instead of the PSP.

When it comes to MH I'll take what I can get, but it's been
a constant source of frustration to hear Capcom say over and over that the
franchise just isn't popular in the West, yet they've never really given it a
proper chance. I still say that if they took a full-fledged, meaty title like the PSP's amazing MH: Freedom Unite and put it on PS3 or 360 with full online capabilities, it would take off
like a rocket.

Instead, here they go again with another Nintendo version… The core fans
like myself will jump on, of course, but this feels like another half-step of progress for a franchise that's rotting on the vine.

“For nearly a decade, our organization has been
reaching out
to developers convincing them they need to include accessibility
for gamers with disabilities,” said Mark Barlet, President and
Founder of the
AbleGamers Foundation. “As that message has
been increasingly accepted in the
video game industry, the question
has slowly turned into “Okay, we need to
make our games accessible, but how?””

“We believe this document and its companion websitewww.includification.com will serve to answer any
questions a
developer might have about the solutions needed to make their
games accessible to the disability community,” continued
Mr. Barlet. “What
thrills me the most is that our recommendations
can be updated via the
website as new technology and information arises.
The videogame
industry is a living breathing entity and we need to
treat it as such by
updating information as it comes in.”

“Words cannot express how extremely proud I am of this
document,
this organization and everyone who helped bring this
together.
This is the culmination of the hard work and dedication
everyone
at our nonprofit has put in over the last 8 years,” said Steve
Spohn,
Editor-in-Chief of AbleGamers.com. “It is my sincerest wish that a
copy of this document sits on the desk of every developer, in the
resource
area of every library and with every major publisher across
the world. It's
time game accessibility leaped to the next level and
these guidelines show
developers exactly how to enable gamers
with disabilities in the easiest,
most efficient and cost-effective manner possible.”

The AbleGamers publication, Includification, includes
numerous
detailed explanations of common problems for gamers with
disabilities, solutions for those problems, printable checklists,
developer
exercises and personal letters from industry insiders
to the game
industry. You can download Includification for free
at http://www.includification.com/guide. The companion website
with easy-to-read references can be found atwww.includification.com. A physical print copy is
available
at-cost from www.includification.com/print.

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Brad, funny. I always had the same idea about school. I have a masters in Social Sciences but the only thing I ended up with is a bog fat debt from syudy loans but no job. (had a good time though). But why don't we learn Spanish and French IN those countries. Because that IS the only way to learn the language. And why don't they teach how to handle electric wires of how to fix a broken tire from a bike? Or how to indeed eat helathy or how to maintain friendships and so on...

It sounds hippy like, but it is not. In the Netherlands however you MUST send your kids to school. Isnt't it the same in the USA?

Glad to see home schooling is going well :) I find it a fascinating subject, especially how people react to it. I've known my fair share of extremists on either side (as flawed as each other, too). I might have spent 10 years of my education home schooled but I'm also happy to accept it's not for everyone, much like not all career paths suit everyone. You know you kid best which is what counts IMO! :)

Start for the slow response, I am just now digging myself out of a giant e-mail hole.

Actually, school is optional here in the USA. I've heard about how the Netherlands (and a few other countries) do not have homeschool as a legal option because of some past problems with extremists... it's pretty unfortunate, but I am happy to say that (for the moment, anyway) we are still free to raise our children as we wish here.